Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Musings: Barking up the Wrong Tree

The transient vacation rental issue is
back before the Kauai County Council tomorrow, with planners
presenting an update on (chuckle) enforcement and a public hearing on the
proposed homestay B&B law.

The Council will also consider a bill requiring lobbyists to register. It's been introduced, with no hint
of irony, by a Councilman who actually engages in unregistered
lobbying — Gary Hooser. He contends his bill is driven by a desire
for “full disclosure.”

Yet he refuses to reveal who is funding
his HAPA group, nor how much it spends on lobbying — like its opening day “food justice” event at the state Legislature
— under the guise of education. Hooser also engages in the highly
unethical practice of using county letterhead to advocate for
positions that support HAPA's agenda.

We usually know who the lobbyists
are because we’ve been here for a couple of years, but the public
doesn’t know who they are. The public is watching John Smith on TV,
they don’t know whether he’s a lobbyist or not, and it’s
important for them to know also.

You know, like when Hooser goes to the
Lege — or crashes the Sygenta shareholder meeting in Switzerland —
and makes like he's speaking on behalf of Kauai and/or the Council,
when he's really just shilling for the anti-GMO Center for Food
Safety, which provides a hefty chunk of HAPA's funding.

Yeah, li' dat.

Which is not to say the county
shouldn't have a lobbying disclosure bill. Only that it's amusing to see someone with zero ethics, like Hooser, trying to waddle his way
over to the high road.

The Council will also squander more
valuable time on the barking dog bill, which has been rendered
toothless. But that hasn't stopped Councilwoman JoAnn
Yukimura from tracking down “new information” to belabor in a
presentation to colleagues who have long since tuned her out.

If only she and Gary had spent some
time boning up on the real big issue before them tomorrow: the
proliferation of visitor accommodations in residential areas, which
has had a direct impact on housing prices, real property tax rates,
long term rentals and a sense of community.

But then, JoAnn and Gary apparently
have no qualms about letting the problem escalate through adoption of
the proposed homestay/B&B bill, which they support and want loosened up. This bill
would allow the county to permit an unlimited number of overnight
accommodations, so long as the owner supposedly lives on site. It
also bans these uses on ag land, a restriction that JoAnn and Gary
oppose.

But since the county has no real
enforcement, the bill basically opens the door for another flood of
legalized hoteliers outside of the designated visitor destination
areas where all tourist accommodations are supposed to be.

Here are some things the Council needs
to consider in deliberating on the B&B/homestay bill:

Enforcement

In the TVR Enforcement Update that
Planning Director Mike Dahilig made to the Council on Oct, 15, 2014,
one of the main operational challenges cited was “illegal TVR’s
now seeking safety in homestay use conversion.” This bill serves to
legitimize, rather than curtail, these activities. And until county
planners can get a handle on monitoring the permitted TVRs — much
less the hundreds of illegal TVRs — it's unwise to add more to
their workload.

Grandfathering

B&Bs/Homestays have always required
a use permit, and as I previously reported, the planning department
did issue some in the past. Any existing operations that lack use
permits are illegal and should not be “grandfathered,” a term
reserved for uses that were previously legal until a new law
subsequently outlawed that use. As we saw with the TVR debacle, the
illegal guys were made legal, and the guys who had been following the
law were forever barred from getting a lucrative TVR permit. That is
morally wrong, and it was a mistake that should not be repeated with
homestays.

Hanalei-Haena

More than 50 percent of Kauai's TVRs
are located between Hanalei and Haena, an area that is in the tsunami
zone, subject to frequent floods and lacking adequate emergency
response capabilities. The TVRs have already irrevocably altered the
North Shore. Let's not worsen the problem by adding in
homestays/B&Bs.

Big Picture

The county General Plan states: "Alternative Visitor Accommodations permitting processes should
consider the cumulative impact that a large concentration of
alternative visitor units can have on a residential neighborhood.”

The county has never looked at this
cumulative impact. Indeed, 65.2% of the permitted TVRs on the North
Shore are within the special management area, which has its own
cumulative impact requirement, but not one has an SMA permit. Why is that?

It's extremely poor planning to allow
an unlimited number of B&Bs/homestays to seek permits without
looking carefully at the impacts. In its reports to planning, the
county Housing Department has alluded to the impacts that visitor accommodations are having on long-term rentals. This is a serious
problem that is adversely impacting local residents.

The Council should request that Housing
conduct a full assessment of the impact of TVRs/homestays on the
long-term rental market before allowing any more visitor lodging in
residential neighborhoods.

As Caren Diamond of the Protect Our
Neighborhood Ohana observed in written testimony submitted to the
Council:

This proposed ordinance needs
substantial work as it does not take into account the many challenges
that have been created due to the passage of the TVR ordinances to
Kauai’s residential neighborhoods, infrastructure and safety.
Adding to those challenges at this time would be imprudent. Please do
not consider permitting more resort units outside of the VDA in these
residential areas.

17 comments:

Agree 100%. No more TVUs outside the VDA. Lets get a handle on where and how many illegal operations are in business and require they be closed before any new permits are issued. How can more be contemplated when we don't know what we already have?

Oh and another thing. If the County fails at allowing more transient vacation units in your neighborhood, their next move might be to change your zoning from R to VDA ; which is what they tried to do to us. With a already 50% TVR saturation rate, think they gave much thought to cumulative impact? VDA would have allowed 100%. Worse yet, the move was given a underhanded assist by two self serving , self styled community leaders (joke) who pushed hard for the change even though they don't live in the neighborhood. Hmmm. Anybody want to guess why?

Another great rip and shred of Hooser! We love you Joan! It is too bad none of the other council members thought to introduce a lobbying Bill. Can't believe Kauai County has no law regulating lobbying. Hope this measure also keeps Mel from lobbying on anti marywanna issues since he is on the Board of the Drug Court. It is despicable that he does not disclose this or his retired cop status when he rails against recreational drug use. Arryl also needs to stop voting on land use issues.

In case truth matters anymore to you Joan (which I find highly unlikely), by definition in order to be a lobbied you must get paid to lobby and from what I know, Hooser is not paid to lobby. And every council member testifies at state legislature using county letterhead and without any official blessing by the county. Mel testifies on cop and drug related issues, KipuKai tesififies in LGBT and YWCA related issues. Both belong to organizations related to those issues. Why not shred them too?

Well, that's Gary's MO...he likes to propose legislation that will benefit him personally: like framing the ethics registration to his liking and structuring the property tax code so he can keep renting out a room in his house and get a big tax break. Look for the personal angle in everything he puts out there.

11:35am. Has Hooser ever voted on something with a direct impact on HAPA? Short answer is no because no Bills impacting HAPA have ever been proposed

11:37am. The definition for lobbyists that is in the Bill is same as is used everywhere. The big fist is not so stupid but reverse, guys fucking brilliant. He introduces the toughest lobbying Bill in the State and now will set back and watch Ross and the other 3 publicly weaken it in support of the big companies. Watch Kanishiro and the others go to bat for the big guys. Great political set up he must have learned playing with the big boys in the Senate.

9:45 and 10:49 Just look at the last election results, Hooser is doomed and he knows it. It will be a joyous occasion, hopefully then you will shut up and accept defeat. Bill 2491 was the most irresponsible piece of legislation in the history of Kauai and people like you supported it. Loosers and Hooser.

Why is using county letterhead a litmus test? Whether they are using county letterhead or not to lobby for personal interests, isn't the key issue the mere fact of the lobbying itself? Whether or not they are using county letterhead, every audience they are lobbying in front of knows who they are, so why is the issue of using county letterhead so distinctive?

In this instance, the use of county letterhead shows that county materials and staff time — public resources — are being used to advance Hooser's private causes. The letterhead also gives the correspondence an official veneer that it doesn't legitimately have, especially when Hooser directs follow up questions to his "staff" and provides the Council Services number.

The county Kauai only got their HR dept just a few years ago so you people should know that things work very slowly here on this rock. It's called JOB security!

DINKYDAO: Hooser is proposing that we regulate the lobbyists? Will it apply to himself? That's a joke with his affiliation to HAPA and CFS. He's got no clue to reality.

Tuesday, January 12, 2016, 10:52 am

lawaiboblawaibob: While they're at it, they should ban lobbyists from becoming council members - this comment is aimed squarely at current and former employees of the west side pesticide companies.

Tuesday, January 12, 2016, 9:46 am

tunataxitunataxi: It's about time !

Tuesday, January 12, 2016, 8:07 am

Truth Be KnownTruth Be Known: Thank you Gary for attempting to rein in the inducements that are used to influence our representatives. This has been going on far too long on our island and it amounts to "legal bribery" by the major corporations.

Tuesday, January 12, 2016, 6:45 am

obboy13obboy13: “Right now, there’s no way to know who is a lobbyist and who isn’t,” Hooser said. “There’s no list, there’s no way to know except to ask them.”

Uh Gary, the lobbyist is going to be the one offering you money or favors in return for your vote. If you can't recognize one by now, it's time to find a new line of work.

Council Member disclosure: All council members be required to publicly disclose all past and current affiliations to any for profit and non profit entities, and if they hold positions in any of these entities, and what these positions are or were.

It is important for the public to be aware of these affiliations when council members are considering legislation on the county level.